Jon Stewart said he's leaving his 16-year post at "The Daily Show" because it's not giving him the "same satisfaction" as it once did.

Stewart, 52, announced his stepping down earlier this year and his replacement – comedian Trevor Noah of South Africa – in March, but hadn't spoken out about why he was leaving until sitting down for an extended interview with The Guardian (UK).

"It's not like I thought the show wasn't working any more, or that I didn't know how to do it. It was more, 'Yup, it's working. But I'm not getting the same satisfaction,'" said Stewart.

"These things are cyclical. You have moments of dissatisfaction, and then you come out of it and it's OK. But the cycles become longer and maybe more entrenched, and that's when you realize, 'OK, I'm on the back side of it now.'"

"Honestly, it was a combination of the limitations of my brain and a format that is geared towards following an increasingly redundant process, which is our political process," he said.

He also added that in order to host his show effectively, he must consume an awful lot of news.

"Watching these channels all day is incredibly depressing," he explained.

Asked if he had any regrets, Stewart noted that he wishes that he had pushed former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld harder about the Iraq war when he interviewed him in 2011.

"I should have pushed, but he’s very adept at deflecting," he said. "That interview with Rumsfeld went sh***y, but it’s still just an interview. He’s the one who has to live with the repercussions of what he really did, so there’s nothing that could happen on my show that carries that same level of regret."